Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Traveling Art Suitcase

I love to travel, but do not like leaving my art supplies at home.  In the past, it usually takes me forever to pack and figure out the supplies I want to bring. Usually I throw in a mix of media, papers, paints, pencils etc which ends up as a big mess. I found a solution to this problem. I now have the perfect art suitcase for road trips so that I can work traditionally and experiment. 

I had been searching for an old fashioned steamer trunk with drawers and shelves. 
But they were either too expensive or too heavy. 
When I found this professional make-up suitcase online I was overjoyed. 
I liked this model because it was soft sided and not too expensive. 


It holds absolutely everything I need or want when I am traveling. 
All I need to do it open it up and find a table to work on.

Below are a few photos of how this magic Mary-Poppins-like bag works. 
1- Entire Bag on Wheels

Sections: There are two sections: TOP

The top can be detached and transported separately. 
It opens with two outward folding shelves. This is where I keep my go-to pencils and misc art supplies. 
It's deep enough for more supplies, sketchbooks, and misc items.

The back has some rounded separators where you can keep short brushes, pencils or in this case colored papers. 

BOTTOM:

On either side of the suitcase there are pouches that are big enough to hold spray fix, 
matte mediums, glue or anything that comes in a larger bottle.

The top flap of the bottom section opens up to another section with room for paper, sketchbooks and shown here my table easel. The back of the flap contains three velcro pouches where I keep my charcoals, pencils, erasers, pens etc. 




The entire front flap opens with two zippers on both sides. It reveals a pouch where I keep more paper, long rulers, stencils etc. 
And it also contains eight drawers were I keep can keep all of my supplies organized.
Each of the drawers can be detached and taken to the table.


My traveling art suitcase came in really handy this past winter when we got snowed in a South Dakota blizzard.  I was able to use the hotel table pull out my art suitcase and paint.





The entire suitcase folds back together nicely and is perfect for a road trip. 
I wouldn’t try to take this on an airplane though! 
The only downside is that when packed completely full it weighs more or less, approximately, exactly 67 lbs!


One other benefit of having this traveling art suitcase, is that when my grandchildren see it, they are inspired and to want to make art. That is a huge bonus. I would imagine also, that if you don’t have much space to work in your home, then
this might also be a great option. 

I’m on my way to NYC for the SCBWI conference. Hope to see some of you there! 
I hope this post inspires you to get your art supplies organized for any of your upcoming road trips.

------------------------------------------
Author: I Am Goose! (Clarion, 2020)
Twitter: @dorothiar
Instagram: @dorothiar



No comments:

Post a Comment